The ABO Serum

Disclosures

When Steve stood up from the dinner table that night and headed straight for his bedroom, Lex reached out to stop him, but pulled his hand back as soon as Steve turned and was careful to ask, "please stay. We need to talk." Steve looked longingly at his bedroom door but returned to the table and sat.

"I want to apologize for yesterday. I didn't understand what I was doing to you. I guess I'm used to phrasing questions like commands. It's weird that I didn't realize I did that, but I guess that's how it was in my house growing up. I'll try really hard to correct that. I promise. I don't want you to do anything in this relationship that you don't want to do. It's meaningless if you don't want it too."

His mate looked across the table at him confused. "Do you really understand what you did to me? Because I'm still confused by it."

After laying it all out for Steve, Lex begged his forgiveness and promised again not to command him. Steve was aghast, horrified by the implications. "How can they keep this...maybe don't tell the alphas but warn the omegas!"

"They're trying to figure out a way to work around it or undo it. They don't want it to get out before they can at least try. Do you trust all those omegas to keep it from their mates? Even now, it's possible they could figure it out. In fact, it's only a matter of time." Lex said and sighed heavily. "Can we leave it be for now? I wanted to be honest with you, but they could fire me for telling this secret. I signed a non-disclosure agreement with GenLife when they hired me."

"You think that still applies here?" Steve asked.

"Yes, it does. And more importantly, I know how hard everyone is working there. I want to give them a chance to make it right. They're good people who just wanted to make more types of families possible. They didn't engineer this to create a crisis. Do you really think that I'd be a part of something like that?" Lex made himself vulnerable with that question. Maybe Steve did think him capable of so much evil. He had the name of a villain after all. It was a challenging thing to overcome.

Steve looked long and hard at the alpha across from him. Alphas in the abstract he thought capable of any evil, but Lex wasn't really a bad guy. He nodded. "Okay for now. But I won't promise to never tell."

"I can accept that," Lex conceded. "I know you're a good man, Steve. I trust what you say and...I want you to know that I like you." Steve looked startled. "Like, apart from all this intense physiological desire we both have, I like you, as a person. I'm not thrilled with the lack of choice, nobody would be, but I'm also not upset that my only option is you. I think...you're a better option than any I ever found on my own. Maybe better than any I imagined.

"I want to get closer to you, and I want to treasure you, and it's not just because my body is saying you're my mate." Lex shook his head and rubbed his neck like he had a stress headache coming on. "You don't have to take my word for it right now, but I wanted to say it so you understand my actions. I'm going to show you that you're important to me, and I don't want you thinking it's just because I'm an alpha and I want to get in your pants." Lex stood but Steve remained seated at the table, staring at his hands.

"I'll give you some space tonight, but first, may I kiss your cheek?" The physiological need for connection was still there, in their pheromones, underlying everything. Steve looked up. He felt it too, but it wasn't controlling him. He could choose. He nodded. Lex dropped a quick peck on his bright pink cheek and went to bed early.

In the kitchen, Steve sat thinking about everything Lex said until quite late. He wanted to cry and laugh by turns at their predicament. Instead of doing either, he sat staring at the cheery yellow walls of their cozy nest. He'd come out of quarantine and settled into this comfortable cottage that Lex found for them. It felt more like a home than any place he'd ever lived with his wife.

He returned to work, and his kids were all still rambunctious and handling the crisis well. Some had family affected. Some wanted to be affected. He spent a couple class periods talking about it with his students and sharing his experience. They challenged his belief that this was 100% horrible with their optimistic views of the potential of a humanity. His own natural optimism had been severely damaged.

His wrestlers had a lot of questions about how this would affect sports. After all, they had girls' and boys' wrestling teams, and various weight classes. Would they have to add new classifications for secondary genders? He didn't have answers. The most likely immediate result would be anyone having a secondary gender would be disqualified, so they should avoid exposure. But if secondary genders became commonplace, the classifications might change to make room for them.

He'd bet the scientists over at GenLife hadn't even thought about that yet. They were changing the world and couldn't possibly be considering all the ramifications. But Lex said they were trying. He was trying. They wanted to make more types of families possible. Did that mean he wanted a family? With Steve?

Would Steve be okay having the babies? He'd joked about it with his ex, but now it was a serious consideration. Whatever his body wanted, children needed stable families to grow up in, with parents who got along. Could he provide that in his current condition? Could he do it with Lex? He didn't know. He couldn't ignore the appeal of Lex's scent enough to know his real feelings. He didn't hate Lex anymore. He didn't believe he was a villain. But could he like Lex?

When Lex got up for a glass of water in the middle of the night, he found Steve asleep at the dining room table with the kitchen light still on. His mate was beautiful in sleep, his face at peace. But he would be sore if he spent all night like this. Lex opened Steve's bedroom door, then came back to pick him up and carry him to his bed. As he bent to pick up the smaller man, he realized that while he could walk again at this point, he wasn't in good enough shape to carry another person. He settled for half rousing his mate and guiding him to his room.

When he fell into bed, Steve pulled Lex down with him. Everything in Lex wanted to crawl under the covers and join Steve, but he'd promised. Walking out of that room wasn't as hard as living without his omega had been. Lex could do anything required of him if it meant his omega would stay.